Category: personal

Hello Again, Hospital

I seem to be having a not-so-good time health-wise. First, I decided to celebrate getting…

I seem to be having a not-so-good time health-wise. First, I decided to celebrate getting paid by ordering a pizza last month. My body doesn’t seem to like unhealthy food, because I was throwing up the next morning. I tried to drink water and have an anti-vomit tablet, but that didn’t help. When I got to the point where I couldn’t keep down water, I had my friends take me to the hospital. The doctor in the Casuality gave me an injection and started me on IV fluids. I think I slept for some time and when I woke up, I threw up again. At this point, the doctor asked me if I wanted to be admitted overnight and I agreed it was a good idea.

By morning, I finally stopped throwing up. The doctor wanted to keep me for a few days because my creatinine levels were a little high and kept increasing. At that moment, to be honest, I didn’t understand the seriousness of what was happening. When I asked him if he’d let me go that evening, he said my kidneys weren’t functioning well and until that became normal, he wouldn’t send me home. I ended up staying from Wednesday evening until Monday evening, getting lots of IV fluids and drinking lots of water. The final diagnosis was that I was extremely dehydrated and this affected my kidney function briefly. When I was discharged, my doctor said I was very lucky to avoid dialysis. That’s when I understood the seriousness of what happened.

Hospital de la Cruz Roja de Vigo

The next day, I flew to Kerala to spend some time with parents so I didn’t have to cook for a few days and my parents would have some relief on seeing me. That’s when the second incident happened – I had a seizure, for the first time that I know of. I don’t remember much of Wednesday except turning off the alarm. When they got me to the hospital, they gave me enough injections that I was out until evening. I woke up around 7:30 pm in the Neurology and Stroke ICU. I had brief memories of being near the MRI machine, my aunt standing at the edge of my bed, and another aunt telling me something. I didn’t even realize I was in the ICU until the patient in the bed next to me told me.

Later, my dad came and talked to me. That’s when I understood what happened. I was under observation for one night and I was, to be honest, extremely bored. The nurses in the ICU were friendly, but most patients were sedated so I could just look around and watch them work. I stayed in the hospital from Wednesday until Saturday this time. After all the tests, the neurologist advised me to take more rest and stress less, and I was otherwise okay. Sigh. If you don’t see me around like you used to, now you know why 🙂

Chocolates from Smurfette Kitchen

Yesterday, I got the chocolates I ordered from Smurfette Kitchen!

Last week, I got the chocolates I ordered from Smurfette Kitchen!

Chocolates from Smurfette Kitchen

I ordered two sets of chocolates – Rum and Raisins and Blueberry. They were both delicious and came with sweet handwritten note from Nupur 😉 I should note that they’re nearly over because they’re so delicious 😀

Two Casualty Visits in 2 Weeks

I finally have a few weeks where I haven’t visited the hospital (knocks on wood) and it’s probably safe to write about it. It’s been an interesting few weeks a…

I finally have a few weeks where I haven’t visited the hospital (knocks on wood) and it’s probably safe to write about it. It’s been an interesting few weeks after I got back from London. My sleep cycle hadn’t quite reset back to normal. I was going to bed pretty late and waking up late, whereas I’m notoriously a morning person.

Visit 1

I went to bed quite late Sunday (July 21st) and woke up quite late too. As soon as I woke up, I threw up. I’ve always been taught that vomiting is dehydrating and I should drink water. I felt extremely weak anyway, and I had water mixed with glucose powder. A while later, I woke up and threw up again. This kept happening throughout the day, I’d drink water, lie down, and a few hours later, I’d throw it up.

Around evening, I went to the nearest medical store and got an anti-vomit. That didn’t seem to help, so my friends (Thanks lut4rp and GnrlMxms!) got me to the nearest hospital. The doctor in the Casualty got me on IV fluids and gave me an injection. They also checked my BP and temperature. Turns out I had a fever of 102 F, and my BP was low. Somehow during all the mess of throwing up, I hadn’t noticed that I was feverish.

The doctor gave me the option of being admitted or going home after the IV fluids was done with medicines for a few days. Since I live alone, I preferred to stay at the hospital. A few days that involved lots of IV fluids, and blood and urine tests later, I was discharged on Thursday. Seems to have been just a viral fever.

Hospital by José Goulão

Visit 2

A few days at the hospital really did sap my energy. I didn’t feel like cooking or eating really, so I decided to visit my parents for a few days and work out of there. I should describe my setup, which is pretty relevant to what happened – My laptop is an HP, which is mostly plastic. It sits on a stand that’s also plastic. This whole setup was on a metal table, which was in fact my old study table. And I use a wireless keyboard and mouse.

I missed work for large parts of July because of being sick and my hard-disk dying while in Cambridge. On August 1st, I woke up bright and early at 6:30 (okay, that’s late for me to be honest). I talked to my mom for a bit and booted up my laptop. I remember sitting down on my chair waiting for it to boot up. My next memory is right outside the Casualty at the local hospital in a car and my mom asking me to get out of the car into the wheelchair.

I was very confused. My body hurt and I had no idea what the hell happened. When the doctor comes around my mom tells him I got electrocuted. I’m lying on the bed going, WTF. I was hooked up to the ECG and I had a catheter placed and IV fluids again. I think I was given an injection at this point.

My parents later told me, they heard the chair move and what sounded like me throwing up. When my dad came to check on me, I was on the floor, shaking (my leg was still touching the table). My dad switched off the power and called my mom. I’m told my mom screamed so loudly that our neighbors came running. One of our our neighbors gave me chest compressions and helped carry me to their car. I have no memory of all of this. The one vague memory I have is throwing up. But I felt like that was part of a dream, and we were going on a trip somewhere.

Meanwhile, in the hospital, a more senior doctor looked at me. He said I looked fine, my vitals were normal, and he’d let me go after the IV fluids were over. They disconnected my ECG and wheeled me to a different bed. Later, I learned, I was part of the area that’s reserved for the most serious patients (gulp). It had an ECG and oxygen supply right there. There were only 3 beds like that and I was in one of them.

The doctor did let me go after the bottle of IV fluids was over, with pain meds to take if I needed them. I escaped with a scratch on my finger and my neck hurting for a few hours.

Yeah, it’s been a fun few weeks…

TL;DR: I was in the hospital twice in two weeks, once for viral fever, and then because I got electrocuted.

My Banking Woes

I’ve always had a phobia of banks. They kept making me think of a

I’ve always had a phobia of banks. They kept making me think of a teacher waiting to punish me because I wrote something wrong in one of their precious forms. When I was younger, I had terrible stage fright, that’s pretty much what happens to me every time I have to deal with a bank.

First Payment

Ever since I started working at OKF, I’ve had trouble with my bank, Axis Bank. I’ve received Wire Transfers to my account several times in the past, and never had to do anything. But for some reason this time, I ran into trouble. Axis bank promises “Direct Credit to your Axis account in less than 48 hours” . I’m, of course, willing to give a leeway of 48 hours more. But the last for 3 times, it’s taken 12 days. Transfers are made out on 10th every month and I receive them on 22nd. This was true for both December and January.

The first payment at OKF wasn’t released into my account until I called the call center about 2 to 3 times and logged a complaint. Finally, I was told to contact my branch, who redirected me to the Forex Department. After being transferred around since nobody was sure who was the right person, explaining the entire problem, I finally got transfered to the right person. As soon as I told him my name, he started with “We’ve been trying to contact you.” This was just surprising and out of the blue. My bank has my phone number, email, and home address. How the hell did they try to contact me? Iris Messages? Because, I definitely didn’t get a call, an email, or a letter. I went to the bank because they wanted me to fill up a form. He turned out to be the Deputy Manager in the Forex Department and insisted that the form had to be filled in original and they wanted a copy of my invoice before they released my money. I don’t know if this is what they call Stockholm Syndrome, but I played along in November, December, and January because there were other things happening in my life that didn’t allow me to change banks.

That's me, when I have to deal with this mess

March Incident

A payment was made into my account on the March 1, 2013. Today is March 15,

  1. I went to the bank on Wednesday, the 13th, to fill up the form, assuming my money would be released then. Except it wasn’t. It’s been 2 full weeks, how are you guys dealing with wire transfers? With carrier pigeons? Because they’d be faster. I’ve checked with my other colleague in India, and he definitely gets the money faster than me. It takes 7 days for him, which is the max he’s seen. I’ve never seen money come into my account any faster than 10 days.

And In Conclusion

I can imagine some of this is part of RBI’s strict control about foreign currency and all that. But seriously? This is just hurting those of us who deal with international transfers on a regular basis for completely legal reasons. First step, I’m going to change banks. As soon as I receive the money for this month, I’m going to walk into an SBI branch and open an account. I’ve talked to a bunch of people and least troublesome bank so far seems to be SBI. And It also helps that they give the best exchange rate. And this morning I’ve been greeting ironic news of Axis, HDFC, and ICICI are being alleged to be assisting with money laundering. I almost thought that was from Faking News.

PS: This post was written in extreme anger. I may end up withdrawing it later, but hell, I had to write it and get it off my chest.